Player Ratings: Villarreal 2-1 Real Madrid – 2022/23

Real Madrid fell to their second defeat of the season, losing 2-1 to Villarreal at the Ceramica Stadium on Saturday.

Yeremy Pino’s thumping strike put the hosts ahead early on in the second-half after some shocking defending from the visitors.

Karim Benzema equalised from the spot a few minutes later. Villarreal didn’t take long to respond with Gerard Moreno restoring the host’s lead from another penalty two minutes later.

Barcelona now have the chance to go three points clear at the top of LaLiga if they beat Atletico Madrid on Sunday.

Player ratings:

Starting XI:

Thibaut Courtois: 6/10

Made a few excellent saves in the first-half to keep the scores level. Nothing he could do about either of Villarreal’s goals thanks to his teammate’s shocking defending.

Eder Militao: 5/10

Started at right-back in place of the injured Carvajal. The Brazilian was excellent at times and then mediocre at others, sums up the team perfectly.

Antonio Rüdiger: 4/10

Started the game really sloppily and got away with a lot of mistakes in the first-half. Improved slightly as time went on but still far from the level expected of him.

David Alaba: 4/10

Very lacklustre performance from the normally reliable Austrian. Alaba looked extremely uncomfortable throughout the entirety of the game and also gave away an unfortunate penalty after handling the ball in the box.

Ferland Mendy: 2/10

Karim Benzema: 6/10

Vinicius Jr: 5/10

Substitutions:

Rodrygo Goes: 5/10 – Came on to replace Mendy. The Brazilian got into a few good positions but couldn’t do enough to impact the game.

Lucas Vazquez: 5/10 – Came on to replace Tchouaméni. Didn’t make much of an impact off the bench.

Eduardo Camavinga: 6/10 – Came on to replace Modric. The Frenchman added energy and athleticism and should’ve probably been brought on sooner.

Marco Asensio: N/A – Came on to replace Valverde late on.